For a guy that hits home runs the way he does, it wouldn’t be a total shock if Mike Stanton didn’t put the same emphasis on his defense as his hitting. Not the case.

If his first four months in the majors were any indication, the Marlins could have an exceptional defender in right field for many years. Stanton according to John Dewan’s Runs Saved formula saved 17 runs. That was tied with Jay Bruce among all major league right fielders. No doubt Stanton’s 10 outfield assists factored into that score.

Stanton also scored high on Dewan’s plus/minus scale. Think of zero as the number of plays an average defender makes at his position. Stanton came it an a +20, third among all right fielders behind Bruce (+24) and Jason Heyward (+23). Outfielders are credited for assists and lose points for allowing baserunners to advance.

Here is the explanation of plus/minus: A sophisticated fielding profile, as presented in John Dewan’s The Fielding Bible Volume II which represents the number of plays the player made above/below the number that an average fielder would make, according to the video scouts at Baseball Info Solutions.

Cody Ross was a +12 in right field for the Marlins and Giants. No other Marlin fielders made Dewan’s top 10 position-by-position leaderboards. The Marlins have plenty of defensive issues to resolve moving forward, but Stanton isn’t one of them.

Comments (7 Comments)

I rather worry about one position at defense than eight other positions. Stanton reminds me of a young Ellis Valentine of the Montreal Expos. Valentine had all the tools in the first five years and then slipped away from stardom. Stanton does need work on cutting down on his strikeouts. More contact on two strikes, not looking for the long ball swing. Go to the opposite field than swinging for the fences.

Playoffs are on! So lets make this simple who will be in the World Series.

Going with San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees.

Giants in six games!

Look for the Marlins to be one of the last teams to hire a manager. Many teams looking for a manager, and no one will want to jump on board with an owner who is rated the worst in the league with so many better teams that need a manager.